LETTER: It's not a gun problem, it's a mental health problem

In 1927, a disgruntled defeated town clerk candidate Andrew Kehoe planted and ignited 500 pounds of dynamite in Lansing, Mich., school, killing 38 children and seven adults - still the worst massacre of school children in U.S. history.

In 1965, Timothy McVeigh, planning vengeance for the Clinton administration's Waco fiasco, parked a fuel/fertilizer laden truck aside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 - many of them children.

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The presidents at the time of these massacres did not call for special task forces to legislate the banning of dynamite or fertilizer.

Since 2010, six separate attacks upon school children in China, where gun ownership is banned, resulted in 21 dead. No reports to date on special task forces to ban machetes or knives in China.

Now, after the awful shooting in Newtown, in the spirit of the Obama Administration "never let a tragedy go to waste," we get Gov. "Knee Jerk" Andrew Cuomo giving an anti-gun rant before the bodies of the children and teachers are removed from the school. Not to be outdone, President Obama selects one of the authors of the failed 1994 Assault Weapons Ban Bill, Vice President Joe Biden, to head up an anti-gun task force.

In a classic case of "closing the barn door after the horses are out," we will no doubt get more "feel good" legislation to ban certain weapons while the sale of these weapons today are through the roof.

We do not have a gun problem in this country; we have mental illness problem in this country.

In most large cities today, you will find people who 20, 30, 40 years ago who were treated and monitored in institutions now walking our city streets in the spirit that it's cruel to "lock people up."

Also, not to be ignored is the cultural rot in this country. In Columbine, Colorado mass-killing kids mimicked killers in Matrix movies. In Aurora, Colo., it was a lone gunman dressed as the Joker from the Batman movie. And in Newtown, it was a disturbed loner who spent his days playing violent video games in his basement room. From rap musicians that glorify the degrading of women and the killing of cops to the violence of gang bangers that follow no laws, we have desensitized an entire generation. We see the breakdown of the traditional family and the lack of adult supervision of impressionable young people.

For those who claim of "too many guns," sane and responsible Americans have owned firearms since the birth of this nation. In fact, the liberties and freedoms we enjoy, and many take for granted, were not God given, but were founded and defended with the point of the gun.

We see a spike in gun ownership today because concerned citizens in this country see the cultural rot and also realize as economic times worsen the government's ability to protect us will also be degraded. It will again be the armed Americans who will be left to defend themselves and their families. It is the police who can only respond and investigate after the carnage is over. To live in freedom is to expose ourselves to the occasional outburst of the insane and criminal. We cannot stop those who strive to commit evil, but we can make sure those who don't, the citizenry and the policy, are given a fighting chance.

It is a fact that the most effective way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy (or in Newtown's case, a teacher or principal) with a gun. For those who see this as "cowboy mentality," too bad. This is about giving people a fighting chance!

As we grieve for the victims in Connecticut, let's also ignore the political hacks who seek to take advantage of this unspeakable tragedy to further their political agendas.